Family ties
by Hecate28
Summary: When Greg attends a shout he doesn't realise how personal it can get I own no rights to Casualty
1. Alone

Jess frowned as she got his answer machine, a familiar voice spoke to her

"Hey in not here at the moment but if you leave a message I'll get back to you as soon as I can"

She paused trying to find the right words then blurted into the phone

"Hey Greg it's me…….look I need to talk to you…..it's urgent…can you phone me back?"

As she ended the call on her phone she sighed and surveyed her surroundings. She could see at either end of the road cars parking ready to pick up their children from the local primary school and just a little before that she could see a small terraced house with a painted blue front door which was peeling, the front garden was overgrown and two windows were smashed.

"Home sweet home" Jess thought as she reluctantly made her way towards the house.

As she was putting her key in the rusted lock she heard raised voices.

"Where the fuck have you been?"

"Out"

"Where?"

There was no reply

"Have you been with her?"

Still no reply

"Well?"

Jess sighed as she walked into the house, from the hallway she could see her mother with her hands on her hips and her face was red from screaming and Mike her mothers boyfriend equally as red.

Jess quietly crept up the stairs and went silently into her room, only when the door was shut did she dare to make a noise. With a groan she threw herself onto her bed and buried her head in her pillow willing for all the shouting to stop.

But her silent pleas were in vain because the shouting continued getting louder and louder and Jess buried her head deeper and deeper into the pillow.

The shouting had gotten so loud now she didn't even hear her door click open. Suddenly she felt a hand on her shoulder and she gasped as she whirled around

"Whoa! Sorry I didn't mean to scare you!" said a voice

Jess caught her bearings and frowned at her intruder. He had short brown hair packed full of some new brand of gel she had never heard of his eyes sparkled as he smiled at her.

"Cam you're such a twat!"

"Well I said I was sorry anyway I knocked before I came in"

"Yeah right"

Cameron sat down on the bed beside her

"Yuck you stink!" she said

"Why thank you it's my new deodorant it's called odour toilette"

"Yeah well it smells like a toilet!"

"You just have no taste!"

"Yeah well I'm gonna have no sense of smell if you don't move away from me!"

Cameron threw a pillow at Jess and she pouted playfully

From downstairs they heard "Fuck you!" and the sound of smashing, Jess groaned and put her head back on the pillow

"It's going to be alright Jess" Cameron said as he placed a comforting hand on her shoulder, he knew how much the arguments affected Jess. He was older and could deal with it but Jess was young still 15, it wasn't fair on her.

"No it won't Cam" she sobbed

"Yes it will I promise you everything is going to be ok" he tucked a stray strand of her long brown hair behind her ear and leant down beside her "Baby sister!"

"I'm not a baby!" she said sitting up and lightly hitting him on his arm

"Yes you are you're my little baby sister" he said with a grin on his face

She frowned and this just made him laugh even more "Come here" he said and he pulled her into a hug

"Ewwww! Cam get off me I can't breath!" she squealed

"As you wish princess" he said releasing her with a big grin on his face

At that moment they heard running up the stairs and both of them froze then someone burst through the door it was their mother red in the face from screaming

"You two come on we're going!" she shouted

"What?" Jess asked "Why?"

"Jess for god's sake don't argue with me for once on your life just do as I say!"

"Mum where are we going?" Cameron asked

"I don't know" their mother screamed "Just get downstairs and outside by the car now!"

The two children followed and as they went downstairs Jess gripped her brother's hand and whispered "I'm scared"

And he whispered back "It's going to be ok" but he didn't believe it himself.

As they stood outside waiting they could hear more shouting from inside, a passer by looked concerned but Cameron just smiled sweetly and said "Hello" and the passer by went on.

Suddenly their mother burst out of the door screaming at the children

"Get in the car"

Even from a distance they could smell alcohol on her breath

"Where are you going?" Mike screamed

"Away from you"

"This is so typical of you, fine you want to be the innocent victim you do that I'm through with it"

"Yeah I am the innocent victim in all of this I'm not the one who's playing away from home!"

"Yeah you play that card, where's your proof?"

"I don't need proof it's written all over your face!" she turned to face Jess "Get in the fucking car" and when Jess didn't move she strode over to her grabbed her roughly by the arm and shoved her in the car, her nails digging into Jess's bare arm

"Mum Ow! You're hurting me!" Jess squirmed trying to get out of her mother's grasp

"Mum leave her alone!" Cameron shouted

"Get in the car!" she shouted at Cameron still trying to get Jess in the car

"Mum at least let me drive!" Cameron protested as he saw the empty wine bottle just inside the house

"No get in the car NOW!" she screamed and with that she dragged Jess in and roughly shut the door on her struggling form then got in the car and pulled away so fast the wheels squealed and left tyre marks on the road.

"Mum please slow down" Jess begged looking at the speedometer which was climbing

"Jess shut up!" her mother hissed with a tone she had never heard before

"Mum" Cameron protested

"Mum…Mum please I'm really scared!" Jess begged her voice quivering

"Jess I'm warning you if you don't pipe down!" her mother snarled

Cameron looked around from the front passenger seat at his little sister who was cowering in the back he gave a weak smile but she continued sobbing

"JESS FOR GOD'S SAKE WILL YOU SHUT UP!" her mother said turning around grabbing her daughter by the arm her nails digging into the young girl's bare arms

"MUM THE WHEEL!" Cameron screamed but it was too late, the old blue car drove straight on into an old tree and that was the last thing Jess remembered before everything went black.


	2. Fear

When Jess finally woke up she had no idea how long she'd been unconscious for as she tried to find her bearings she put a hand up to her head and felt a warm liquid greet her as she pulled her hand away she gasped, all over her hand was a deep red liquid. She sat there for a minute blinking back tears and staring at her hand then she sprung into action.

She grabbed the handle of the passenger door and tugged but it was no use it was jammed shut then she noticed the back passenger window had cracked and there was a hole big enough for her to put her arm through and tug the handle to release the door. She cautiously made her out of the car stumbling slightly as she did and as she got out she could hear ambulance sirens ringing and sure enough seconds later an ambulance pulled into her perspective and two paramedics jumped out and ran over to her. Jess stumbled forward and one of the paramedics a blonde woman grabbed her before she fell.

"Hello sweetheart I'm Dixie I'm a paramedic what's your name?" she said sitting the young girl down

"Jess…..Jess Fallon" she stuttered shaking uncontrollably, she felt a surge of dizziness wash over her

Dixie frowned as if the name rang a bell "Ok sweetheart can you tell me what happened…" she said

Suddenly she was interrupted by a voice screaming her name

"Jessie oh my god!" she looked up and saw a tall dark haired man sprint over to her, he knelt down before her and put her head in his hands "Jessie…." He whispered and then saw the wreckage "Oh god…….." his mumbled so softly that even Jess wasn't able to hear it.

"Greg….Greg what the hells going on?" Dixie said shocked at the young paramedic's response to this shout

Greg turned and faced Dixie with a look of pain on his face

"Dixie this is my niece Jessie….." and as he looked again towards the car he gulped "And……" he took a deep breath on and turned his attention back towards Jess

"Who was in there with you?" Greg said with a startled look in his eyes

"Greg….I….I'm sorry" Jess on babe who was in their with you?" he said stroking her hair softly

"I……my…..Sorry" she stuttered her voice thick with tears

Greg took her by the shoulders and asked again "Come on Babe you got to concentrate"

She took a deep breath in and finally answered "Mum and Cam" before bursting into tears

"Oh god………." Greg said his voice trembling

Greg ran over to the car but Dixie stopped him a few steps later

"Greg you can't they're family you can't treat them!" Dixie said firmly

"Dixie they need me!" Greg shouted

"She needs you!" Dixie said nodding back towards Jess who was sobbing uncontrollably at the scene that lay before her

By this point another ambulance had arrived as backup and Jeff and Josh jumped out and ran over to the scene

"You called for backup?" Jeff quizzed whilst Josh lead the girl a few metres away to a safer place

"Yeah ok so we have a head on collision with that tree, three people involved, one adult a female and two teenagers a girl and a boy, the girl…."

"Jessie…Her name's Jessie" Greg cut in

"The girl Jessie" Dixie continued "Got out before we arrived but the other two are still stuck inside Jeff if you can go and see treat Jessie and ask Josh if he can help me with the wreckage" Jeff nodded and everyone sprung into action

"What about me?" Greg asked

"The best thing you can do right now is look after your niece" Dixie replied firmly and carried on towards the wreckage.

Jeff and Greg walked over to the young girl;

"Greg I need to know about her"

"Ok Jess Fallon she's my niece, she's 15 years old…" Greg continued as they walked on towards the young girl

Josh was kneeling down beside the girl trying to give her some comfort

"Ok sweetheart I know" he said as she sobbed "You're safe now"

Jeff crouched down beside Josh and said "Dixie wants you over at the wreckage mate" and Josh nodded but took Jeff to one side

"She's really in shock at the moment" Josh said looking grim and Jeff nodded

Josh knelt down before the young girl "Ok Jess I'm going to go over there now because I need to help your mum and brother this is Jeff he's going to look after you"

"Hello princess" Jeff said softly but the girl made no response she kept her gaze fixed on the car, he touched her hand softly but she shrank back in fear, Josh gave her a comforting squeeze on the shoulder and then ran off towards the wreckage

"Jessie…." Greg tried to coax her gently crouching down beside her

"Sweetheart they're doing all they can over there but I need to see if you're alright ok?" Jeff said firmly but kindly but still Jess made no reaction

Then Jeff knelt in front of the young girl and took her head in his hands "Jess I really need to see if you're injured ok sweetheart" the young girl looked straight into his eyes and the blinked a few times as if she was coming out of a dream and after a few seconds Jess finally nodded

"Good girl" Jeff said giving her a smile

Jeff checked over the girl apart from a few deep cuts and bruises she had been very lucky.

But as he brushed her hair back he saw a long deep gash on her head bleeding heavily

"Ok Jess I need you to keep really still for me alright sweetheart?" and Jess nodded

Jeff leant over and got some pads to try and stem the bleeding, he pressed them gently against her head, but she writhed in pain, Greg sat to the side of her and tried to keep her still

"Do you feel dizzy or sick at all?" Jeff asked checking her head gently, the wound was still bleeding

"A bit" Jess replied shakily

"Ok sweetheart" and Jeff turned to Greg who was stroking the young girl's hair gently as a means of comfort; suddenly the young girl lurched forward and threw up on the damp concrete

"Ok princess…you're alright" Jeff said pressing the pads a little harder and sitting her back up

"We're going to have to take her in I'm not entirely happy about that head wound and now she's just thrown up I really think we need to get it properly checked out" Jeff said and Greg nodded

Jeff turned back to Jess and gave her a smile but all she could give in reply was a small sob more cuts on her arms but these didn't look like they'd come from the crash

"How did you get those sweetheart?"

Jess shrank back towards Greg

"Its ok babe he won't hurt you he's trying to help" but Jess shrank further and further back towards Greg.

Over by the wreckage Dixie and Josh came across a horrific scene; the front of the car had totally crumpled from the impact of the tree and there was blood everywhere. There were two people lying in the front; the boy had his neck twisted at a funny angle and Dixie lent in to check a pulse.

"There's nothing" she said softly

"He probably died in impact" said Josh gently

Dixie nodded

"What about the driver?" Josh asked

"There's an output but it's weak" and Josh nodded and Dixie went round to the drivers side to begin the necessary medical attention

Jeff came running over "We're going to take Jessie in" he said "She has a nasty head wound and I'm not entirely happy about it and I think she hit her head quite hard on impact because she seems a bit dazed and she just threw up…." Jeff's voice trailed off as he looked into the car at the young boy "Is he..?" he asked softly and Dixie nodded "Oh god….."

"Do you want me to tell them?" he asked gently and Dixie nodded

Jeff went back towards the two and crouched down beside them and looked Jess straight in the eye.

"I am so sorry sweetheart but….your brother…he….he didn't…..he didn't make it" Jeff murmured.

Jess burst into a flood of tears and Greg held her tight rocking her back and forth and when Jeff looked into his eyes he saw that he was crying silently.

"I'm sorry…..he died on impact…I know this wont help you but I can tell you it probably would have been quick" he said choking back tears, he barely knew the girl but he felt so sorry for her.

"Greg we really should get going" Jeff said gently after a few minutes and Greg nodded

"Come on Jessie….babe" he said steadying the sobbing girl and blinking away his tears "It's going to be alright" but all his and Jeff's attempts to console the young girl were in vain.

A few minutes later and they were at the E.D, as Greg and Jeff took the sobbing girl in it started to rain it seemed as if the weather was a miserable as they felt.

"Abs this is Jessica Fallon she was involved in an R.T.A and has minor cuts and bruises and a deep laceration on her head, we think she hit her head on impact as she was a bit dazed when we got to her" Jeff said taking her into the reception area where Abs was awaiting their arrival

"Fallon…is that?" and Greg nodded

"Ok Jessica do you want to come with me and we'll get your sorted out?" and he took the young girl gently by the shoulders and lead her towards a spare cubicle

"Are you going with her?" Jeff asked Greg gently

"I need to get her cleaned up, I can't let her see me in this state" and Jeff nodded.

Greg wandered off towards the toilets in a state of shock. He stumble into the doors and stood by the sink sobbing

"Come on Greg" he said to himself "She needs you"

He splashed cold water on his face and felt a little better, then he took his phone out of his pocket to check for messages even though this wasn't a great time to do it Greg just needed to take his mind off the situation for a few seconds, the display flashed up with one missed call and as Greg pressed the receiver to his ear he heard the begging tones of his young niece a few hours earlier, Greg sank to the floor in tears

Meanwhile Abs was getting things ready to clean up Jess's wounds

"Ok Jessica…"

"Jess or Jessie…I don't like Jessica" she said softly and Abs smiled he had started to get through to her

"Ok Jess…I'm going to clean up your head wound now is that ok?" he said and she nodded "Good girl"

As he busied himself cleaning up her head he struck up a conversation to try and take her mind off the situation.

"Do you want me to call your Dad?"

"You can't"

"How come?"

"He died…when I was five"

Abs looked up at the girl but her voice was melancholy as she said those words

"So you're a relation of Greg yeah?" Abs said changing the subject

She nodded "He's my uncle" and Abs nodded

"So are you Australian as well?"

"Yeah I was born there but I moved over when I was five after…" Jess said her voice trailing off

"I wish I was in Australia sometimes especially with the weather we're having" Abs said quickly

"Me too… I miss the waves"

"Do you surf then?" and Jess nodded

Just then Greg entered the cubicle his eyes red from crying

"Hey" he said gently and Jess gave a weak smile back

"Jess was just telling me about surfing" Abs said continuing the conversation

"Yeah….did you know that Jess is an amazing surfer?" Greg smiled blinking away the tears

"I'm not" Jess murmured

"Yeah you are and anyway you were taught by the best"

"Maybe you should give me some tips sometime" Abs said gently

"There we go all done" he said as he put the final stitch in her head

"Now we want to keep you in for observations because you hit your head which is routine for any situation like yours ok?" he said and she nodded

Abs and Greg stepped to one side of the room for a moment

"Thanks" Greg said and Abs nodded "She seems to open up to you"

"How are you holding up?"

Greg shrugged "They brought Jen, their mother to recuss but it doesn't look great…I need to hold it together for Jessie….she's lost her brother today she needs someone there for her"

"Were they close?"

"Yeah pretty much….after their Dad passed away Cameron became really protective of her"

"And you were around"

"But not enough….I got a message from Jessie earlier today she said she wanted to speak to me but I wasn't there"

"But you're here now and that's what counts" and Greg nodded

Greg stepped back in the cubicle with Abs and the young girl looked up at them, her eyes full of sadness

"Hey babe" Greg said gently but Jess made no response

"Jess…Your mum is injured quite badly and we're not sure if she's going to make it…."

Jess wailed and Greg pulled her into a hug trying to comfort her

"Shhh come on babe"

"Now it would be really helpful if you could tell us what went on before the crash" Abs continued softly

Jess nodded "Ss..she was a.aargueing with Mike when I got home….and they w..were screaming and then she c…came into my room and screamed at us to get to the car…..and..I….I could smell alcohol on her breath….and… then she drove….off r…really fast and I was telling her to slow down…..and she turned around and let go of the wheel…..and it's all my fault"

"No it's not Jessie" Greg soothed "You were trying to prevent an accident from occurring"

"Jess…..How did you get those cuts on your arms did someone do that to you?" and at that moment Jess hung her head and said no more.

Abs and Greg passed looks to one another.

There was something more to this story….something that Jess wasn't telling them


	3. Truth

Greg looked down at the young girl he had cradled in his arms and sighed sadly "_how did I let it come to this?"_ he thought to himself. In fact he was so deep in thought he didn't even hear Abs enter the cubicle

"Hey" Abs said softly and Greg jumped

"Hey" he replied after composing himself

"How is she?" Abs asked gently

"She fell asleep about an hour ago"

"You know you should really go home and get some rest too"

"I can't leave her" Greg said defensively and Jess stirred in her sleep, Greg slowly moved out of the cubicle in order to continue the conversation without disturbing her

"You're no use to her like this"

"And how would you know what's good for her?" Greg shouted

"You need to calm down" Abs said firmly and Greg looked directly into his eyes and Abs saw the look of pain reflected in them

"I can't do this" Greg murmured shaking his head

"She needs you…but not when you're like this"

"I can't leave her"

"Then at least go to the staffroom and try to get some sleep" and Greg nodded slowly and moved off towards the staffroom. Abs paused for a moment before entering the cubicle.

When he finally entered he saw Jess stirring from her sleep

"Hey" he said soothingly and she smiled groggily up at him "How are you feeling?"

"Ok" she said but Abs didn't believe it

"Jess I think we need to have a talk" and he noticed her gaze drop to the floor

"Ok" she murmured

"I just want you to know you're safe here and no one can hurt you and anything you tell me is confidential" and Jess nodded slowly "So can you tell me how you got those scratches on your arms?"

Jess froze at once and clammed up, she shook her head

Abs continued carefully "If someone's hurting you then…" he looked up at Jess and saw she was on the brink of tears he put out a comforting hand but as soon as he touched her she flinched and shrank back into the corner.

"It's ok I'm not going to hurt you" he said but the girl just shrank back further and further away from him.

Suddenly Mike burst into the cubicle and came towards Jess but Abs stood up blocking his path

"Excuse me sir"

"Let me through I need to see her" he shouted

Abs turned around and saw the young girl cowering at the sight of this intruder

"So who are you exactly?"

"Mike Jones… her mother's boyfriend"

"Look maybe we should continue outside you're upsetting her" and he took Mike out of the cubicle and towards the relatives room shouting to Charlie to look after Jess for a few minutes

Abs sat Mike down on one of the seats and started to ask him about the days events

"Jess said you were arguing with Jen and that's what caused her to drive off in the car"

"Oh so you know our relationship so well" Mike said turning red with anger

"Well why don't me you tell me what happened then?"

"Jen got home today and she'd been drinking…again…and then she started going on about me having an affair with the bar maid down the pub then she threw a plate at me grabbed the kids and drove off"

Back in the cubicle Charlie was trying to calm Jess down

"Hey it's ok sweetheart" he said soothingly

Eventually her sobs became mere gasps and then she was able to talk again

"So you're Jess then…Greg talks about you all the time he's very proud of you…he's always talking about what an amazing surfer you are" Charlie said gently

Then Greg came softly into the cubicle and Charlie turned to smile at him

"Hey Charlie…what happened to Abs?"

"He went to the relative's room to try and calm a man down"

"What did this man look like?"

"Erm…tall…blonde hair…he was wearing a Chelsea football shirt"

At this point the look on Greg's face changed and he ran out of the cubicle towards the relative's room and burst through the door and stormed up to Mike grabbing him by the shirt

"You give me one good reason why I should not kick your head in right now"

"It's not my fault"

"Oh so it's not your fault that my niece is sitting in a cubicle with a pretty nasty head injury, that my sister-in-law fighting for her life in recusses and that my nephew is now lying in a morgue with his neck broken"

Mike dropped down to a chair "Cam's dead?"

"Yeah he is" Greg shouted tears brimming in his eyes

"It wasn't my fault Jen came in and she had been drinking again then she started shouting the odds and then she just took the kids and ran off…how was I to know it was going to end like this"

"You let her drive under the influence of alcohol"

"She went before I could stop her…she was hysterical I has no choice"

"Everyone has a choice that's called life and now thanks to you quite a few people have lost theirs"

Greg stormed out the room and towards recuss; he pushed the doors open gently and walked towards the still form lying on one of the beds, Adam looked up and came towards Greg

"Hey I didn't realise you were still on shift"

"I'm not"

"Then what…"

"That's my sister-on-law"

"Oh god…the R.T.A…that was…"

"My family"

"Who else was in their with her?"

"My niece and nephew"

"Are they?"

"He's dead but she's ok but really shaken up" and Adam nodded gently

"How is she?" Greg asked nodding towards the body

"Greg I'm not going to lie to you it's pretty grim…there's serious internal injuries and she lost a lot of blood…she went into cardiac arrest once….if she goes again then I'm not sure we're going to get her back"

Greg fought back tears and Adam put a comforting hand on his shoulder

"I'm really sorry" and Greg nodded slowly

Greg made his way back to cubicles slowly and entered the cubicle where his niece lay, he stopped just before her bed and Charlie turned and smiled

"She's doing well Greg"

And Greg nodded and sat down on the chair beside her

"Is she asleep?" he said softly

"Yeah about half an hour ago" Charlie said "How are you bearing up?"

Greg shrugged "As best I can"

Jess stirred in her sleep and murmured slightly, Greg leant over her and saw a pair of green eyes flicker open

"Hey" he said smiling down at her

"Hey" she said groggily, blinking her eyes to get rid of the tiredness, she pushed herself up and Greg saw the bruising forming from the wound on her head and he saw her eyes full of sadness

"I'll leave you two to it" Charlie said giving Jess a smile and with that he left the cubicle

"Where's mum?" Jess murmured

"We need to have a talk about that Jessie"

"Oh…"

"Jessie your mum's really hurt and…she might not get better"

"Will she die?"

"She might do" and Jess blinked back tears

"What's going to happen to me?" she asked timidly

"Well…I could look after you. How does that sound?" and Jess nodded

"Good girl…anyway you should stay with me tonight ok?"

"Ok…"

"I'm going to go home now really quickly and pick you up some clothes and I promise you I'll be back within half an hour"

Jess nodded and Greg smiled and left the cubicle

"Did you talk to her?" Abs said appearing from round the corner

"Yeah…but she's being really strong about it"

"Brave kid…"

"Yeah I'm off home quickly to pick up some clothes and I really need a shower"

"Do you want me to sit with her?"

"If you wouldn't mind…"

"It's fine anyway it's really quiet here at night"

"Thanks" and with that Greg stepped out into the moonlight


	4. Together

As Greg walked out into the moonlight, he didn't even notice the cold air whip around him; he took the short walk to the local graveyard and sat down.

"I'm sorry" he whispered to the grave marked "Will Fallon"

Greg stood up and carried on walking, as he walked down the road he saw Cyd get out of her car and run towards him

"Greg!" she said embracing him

"Hey…"

"I'm so sorry I heard what happened"

"Me too"

"Greg we can get through this together me, you and Jessie"

Greg nodded and she hugged him. Her presence made him feel better

_Maybe we can do this; maybe it's all going to be ok_ he thought

"I love you" he whispered to Cyd

"I love you too, now lets go back to see Jessie"

"As a family?"

"As a family" she smiled


End file.
